Social Icons

I have added these new nail polishes to my vanity lately and I've been dying to talk about them. They are the Deborah Milano Gel effect Colore Extra Brilliante nail polishes. I got a little set of three because I found them with this cute little coin purse( which my Mom loves so I gladly gave it to her). What it basically says on their website is they are "Formulated for rich, full, even colour and a dazzlingly glossy finish, the product provides perfect coverage and a volumising “gel like” surface – without using UV light. Results? A picture-perfect high-gloss manicure that can be achieved effortlessly, from the comfort of home."Let's be honest, I'm very lazy most of the time to go get a gel manicure done at the salon and I'll be happy enough to get a substitute at a lower cost that can be done without leaving the comfort of home(Hell, yes!). That being said, I don't think it can be actually compared to a salon gel manicure as it is with most drugstore products but it can come close and gets the job done much nicer than other normal nail polishes out there.

The finish, it's very glossy as promised and I think that's the main factor that drew me to these 8.5ml bottles. The set has 1 matte Pink shade , no. 22 and two shimmery ones - a red, no.08 and a gold, no.05. I was pleased with the glossiness of both, the matte and the shimmers. I'm usually fond of creamy mattes but I couldn't resist the festive red and gold combination for this time of the year. I think I'll be painting my nails many times with them in the coming month. The pink one can be a nice passover for the Spring of 16'.

I've been out and about in the Himalayas for the last week or so and that explains my absence from the blog for the period. Although I planned to blog while I was on the road but internet connectivity in these pristine mountains is sometimes not guaranteed. I did get some limited connectivity in the Hotel rooms that I stayed in but I spent most of the day outside and too exhausted when I got back to work on anything. Hence, I had to cease any posting and actually enjoyed my time there!

I have been a lover of mountains from a very young age and although I've grown up along the sea, I've still grown to love the mountains much more. I'm just like anybody else, coveting the uncovetable, something that I don't get to see enough of. My love for mountains has come a long way since reading children's stories about life in the mountains to wishing I can trek up these mountains one day.

Although we covered the meandering roads by car, looking at the drop below with awe as we made our way up was an experience of it's own. I visited the towns of Kullu and Manali which consisted of the adventure and sightseeing and the towns of Shimla and Kandaghat for mostly relaxation and temple visits. I've summed up some of the highlights of my trip to cherish and inspire more mountainous travel. We landed at the Kullu airport at around 8.30 in the morning and we were shuttled to our hotel in Manali in half an hour - forty five minutes. Manali had a day temperature of about 7 - 8 degrees when we stayed there and the night temperatures went down to about -3 degrees. The weather was absolutely lovely there with lots of lush, evergreen forests surrounding the place with the stark white mountain peaks in clear view making the sunrise and sunset absolutely breathtaking.

The little towns of Manali and Kullu are full of little shops, restaurants, tea houses and markets. The most famous things to buy there are the pashmina stoles, shawls and sweaters with a traditional woven print on them. The little markets also sell a lot of souvenirs and some great little cafes known for their marvelous North Indian food and desserts. The roads are mostly mountainous roads with little bits of colourful houses and religious places visible in the distance.

Naggar Castle

We visited this little Naggar Castle, a 30 minute drive away from Manali which was believed to be the home to the King years ago. It's made of wood and stone, which used to be a traditional method of building houses in the mountains. A stag head guards the castle which have some richly carved doors. The entire castle is surrounded with balconies which have access from every room of the house. The little cottage just across the courtyard, decorated with garlands used to be the temple, the place of worship.

I'm back again with an outfit post as it's been a while since my last one because of the amount of work and examinations that I had to deal with for the last couple of weeks. I've finally been able to go out and take a lot of pictures for my blog. This one's a little seventies inspired outfit and I'm so happy that high necks or turtle necks are in at the moment but it was quite warm outside to be able to wear a jumper. So I opted for this lace high neck top with a classic button down denim skirt to make it a little easy-breezy. Honestly, white lace manages to look so feminine even with something a little bit on the masculine side like my boots.

I have my new favourite brown lace up boots on with some frilly white socks because I feel like they are the perfect boots that I own at the moment. The cut, the patent leather and the comfort is just too good to pass up when I'm doing something seventies inspired. My orange satchel is to add a little bit more colour to the otherwise neutral outfit and to go with my new everyday lip colour, Maybelline Velvet Matte Lipstick in M8 which is possibly the most beautiful autumnal orange/red. I feel like it could pass up as a dupe for NARS Geraldine which is a colour I've been coveting for a while now.

I'm going to be reviewing these two new purchases that I recently made. Firstly, because liquid lipsticks are everywhere and secondly,when I saw my favourite drugstore brand, Maybelline get onto the bandwagon as well I had to pick up some and try for myself.

I got two shades, one of them being a more pinkier shade and another being a more corally, autumnal shade. They come in tubes of 5ml each.

A few things that I noticed about these liquid lipsticks are that they are of a very creamy consistency, almost feels like a hydrating lip balm and I wore no lip balm before wearing these and my lips still felt very hydrated throughout the day. They aren't drying like other liquid lipsticks which can be a bit of a issue in the drier months of winter. However, these do have a creamy sheen to it and don't look completely matte like a lot of them. If you're into that harcore matte look on your lips then stay away from these.

I don't seem to mind them much because extreme matte formulas settle onto the lines of my lips and I really like how comfortable these feel on my lips.

The one issue with these lipsticks are they are not very opaque and I don't know if it's just the colours I got, but I had to apply 2-3 coats to get the opacity I usually like on my lips. I would be interested to see how these look with a little bit dabbed onto my lips for a light stain. They last 2-3 hours very nicely and after that they do tend to move around a bit if you're eating or out in humid weather because of their creamy consistency. However they stain the lips very evenly and leave a nice flush of colour on the lips even after they've completely disappeared. I had a hard time to getting this stain off even with my makeup remover. The applicators on this are doefoot type applicators which are slightly conical to form a tip which help in application.